Monica Barone

Monica Barone is an Italian dancer, performer and visual artist. She was born in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1972. She graduated from the Paolo Toschi Art Institute and from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts.

In 2000, she debuted as visual artist with a series of photographic images in the solo exhibition Il Corno d’argento, curated by Luciano Inga Pin. The pictures were subsequently presented in another solo exhibition part of the project Artintype by Arti Grafiche Martintype and published in Corriere della Sera and in Ballettanz. 

Monica studied contemporary dance with Lucia Perego, Thierry Parmentier, Michele Abbondanza, Antonella Bertoni, Roberto Castello, Giorgio Rossi, Larrio Ekson, Luisa Casiraghi, Tino Schepis, Monica Bianchi; contact improvisation with Gabriela Morales, Jess Curtis, Lisa Nelson, Daniel Lepkoff, Laura Banfi, Nadia Pedrazzini, Roberto Lun; and danceability with Alito Alessi.

Her dance practice is rooted in research on themes such as the sacred, esotericism, ontology, speciesism and antispeciesism, as well as the processes of phylogenesis. She focuses on the “person” understood in the full physical, mental, emotional, and energetic totality, and on the body’s innate intelligence.

Collaborations

In 2006, she took part in the ACT#1 project (Rome Fashion Week, 2006) and collaborated with C.I.M.D. Centro Internazionale di Movimento e Danza in promoting workshops in schools. 

From 2020 to 2022, she led workshops for people with disabilities within S.I.I.A.T.E (Scotland Italy Inclusive Artist) projects and within Esaltazioni, a project promoted by Lenz Fondazione and aimed at the SERD.

Projects and Interpretations

She is the interpreter of the works Sull’ammore (2012), Lei (2012) and of various performances of contact improvisation. 

In 2017, she started collaborating with Lenz Fondazione performing in the site-specific installation Paradiso. Un pezzo sacro. In 2019, she was the interpreter in Iphigenia in Tauride, directed by Maria Federica Maestri and staged in Milan (Festival del Silenzio), Verona, Genoa (TestimonianzaRicercaAzioni), Bologna (DAMS50), Pisa (Animali Celesti). She later performed the role of Athena in Orestea, (Natura Dèi Teatri Festival).

Since 2022, she is associated artist in Bestiario | Femminile | Animale, a project curated by Lenz Fondazione.

She is currently involved in Dies Irae + Symphony #2 – Beatitudine vera ed eterna (winner of the “VOCE” project by Tenuta dello Scompiglio, 2024), choreographed and directed by Gloria Dorliguzzo, with music by Galina Ustvolskaya, curated by Gian Luca Feccia and vocal coaching by Francesca Della Monica (2024–2025). The piece will be presented at the Oriente Occidente Festival (Rovereto) and in Florence (Cango, Goldonetta) in 2026.

Pasolini – Corpi disarmati e luminosi (2025)

Description: "Pasolini – Corpi disarmati e luminosi" is the new staging of Monica Casadei’s project dedicated to Pier Paolo Pasolini, on the 50th anniversary of his death.

Extra information: “All you have to do is simply continue to be yourselves: which means to be continuously unrecognisable. Immediately forget great successes and carry on undeterred, stubbornly, eternally contrary, insisting, willing, identifying yourselves with what is different.”

Choreography and direction: Monica Casadei
Music: various artists (AAVV)
Voices: Davide Tagliavini, Monica Casadei
Musical dramaturgy: Davide Tagliavini
Created with and performed by: Monica Barone, Sally Demonte, Alfonso Donnarumma, Susanna Ferrante, Costanza Leporatti, Mattia Molini, Christian Pellino, Salvatore Sciancalepore
Production assistant: Mattia Molini
Costume assistant: Michelle Atoe
Special thanks for tailoring: Elena Nunziata
Production: Compagnia Artemis Danza

In collaboration with Solares Fondazione delle Arti, Tieffe Teatro, To Be… Umanità in movimento.

With the support of Fondazione Monte Parma.

With the contribution of the Italian Ministry of Culture, Regione Emilia-Romagna, and the Municipality of Parma.

Over Gina Pane_4 Azioni Sentimentali_Azione #1 (2024)

Description: "Over Gina Pane_4 Azioni Sentimentali" is a performative creation in which the bitter, austere beauty pursued by Gina Pane in her uncompromising artistic practice takes on an embodied and unsettling form.

Extra information: In Action no. 1, the active presence—the performer and co-creator Monica Barone—establishes an unequivocal correspondence with sacred iconography, an authentic mirroring of the figure of Apollonia (the saint whose teeth were torn out), in complete alignment with her own personal experience of martyrdom.

Concept, creation, installation: Maria Federica Maestri
Performers in co-creation (in order of appearance): Monica Barone, Carlotta Spaggiari, Valentina Barbarini, Tiziana Cappella
Visual refractions: Francesco Pititto
Project coordination: Elena Sorbi
Organization: Ilaria Stocchi
Exhibition setup: Alice Scartapacchio, Giulia Mangini
Communication, press office: Elisa Barbieri
Distribution, graphic design: Alessandro Conti
Photographic documentation: Elisa Morabito
Production: Lenz Fondazione

The project was presented in Palazzo del Governatore in Parma, during the exhibition "Contemporanea, capolavori dalle collezioni di Parma". It was realized in collaboration with the Department of Culture of the Municipality of Parma and Solares Fondazione delle Art.

Umano Disumano Postumano (2024)

Description: "Umano Disumano Postumano" is Monica Barone’s first work as both author and performer. Its choreographic research emerges from a focus on the body’s internal proprioception in space and time, in relation to the external environment, structuring the dance through the languages of dance theatre and contact improvisation.

Extra information: A key element of this work is sensitivity, understood as an attitude of listening, perception, presence, and authorship, as well as a willingness to shed preconceived ideas about what the body can or cannot do. The aim is to move beyond what one already knows about oneself and to seek a more authentic and personal movement vocabulary.

Written and directed by Monica Barone
Production: Lenz Fondazione within PARENTELE

In 2023, the studio of "Umano Disumano Postumano" won Open Dialogo - Residenza d’Artista.

Freak Out!!!!! (2023)

Description: "Freak Out!!!!!" explores the imaginaries surrounding disabled bodies in general, and in particular the relationship between disability and art, as well as between violence and ableism, including the ways disabled bodies have been displayed and spectacularized from the past to the present (for example, in Freak shows).

Extra information: The performance, at the same time, investigates the creative, aesthetic, and poetic potential of disabled bodies, with attention to issues of accessibility and audience engagement for both spectators and artists.

Performers and choreographers: Diana Anselmo, Monica Barone, Cesare Benedetti, Giorgio Bernini Alessandra Cinque and Riccardo Olivier.

Supported by Laagam, Centro ArteMente, I Cinque Sensi, Cornelia, Italìa & Co, Factor Hill, Danzeventi, Italian Ministry of Culture.

Proximus (2022-2023)

Description: "Proximus" is a international videodance project bringing together two dancers Alessandra Cinque and Monica Barone from Italy, and two composers, Heidi Lu and José Luis Romualdo from Mexico. It is supported by the British Council and Creative Scotland.

Extra information: In the performance, two astral beings embark on a mysterious journey from darkness into light. They stalk each other across time and space until an encounter with a black hole catalyses a twinned metamorphosis of transformation and self discovery.

"Proximus" was directed and filmed by Giorgio Bernini in La Toscanini Parma and in Up Fitness Parma, in February 2023. The music was recorded in San Juan del Rio (Mexico), in April 2023.